312 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 477. 



tendence of the National Educational Associa- 

 tion meets annually in Tebruary, and many 

 college teachers of education find it desirable 

 to attend its meetings. Consequently the so- 

 ciety plans to alternate between convocation 

 week in January and the superintendents' 

 meeting in February. It is very doubtful if 

 the educationists could secure satisfactory at- 

 tendance during convocation week unless the 

 meetings were held in a very central location. 

 Nevertheless, I feel that it is worth while oc- 

 casionally, say every other year, to sacrifice 

 something in order to come in touch with the 

 other great societies. This object, however, 

 would hardly be gained if other societies 

 should act in the same manner, unless some 

 agreement could be reached concerning the 

 biennial sessions. 



My suggestion is that once in two years 

 all the societies meet in the same place, and 

 that on alternate years the chance be given the 

 affiliated groups to serve their various interests. 

 The place of holding the biennial sessions 

 should be on or near the trunk lines and have 

 suitable hotel accommodations. In my judg- 

 ment, too, much would be gained by returning 

 biennially to the same place. It woiild tend 

 to give the association a fixed home and, what 

 seems to me of great importance, a permanent 

 and reliable constituency. 



James E. Russell. 



Concerning the plan of holding our annual 

 session in the winter and also of the conflict- 

 ing interests of the association and the affili- 

 ated societies, it is perhaps too soon to give 

 a decided opinion, but I have a strong impres- 

 sion that a definite plan separating the sessions 

 of the association from those of the societies 

 is necessary to the highest welfare of both. 

 Unless something is done the affiliated socie- 

 ties will swamp the association. 



My preference would be to have it generally 

 understood that the affiliated societies make a 

 special business of meeting during the eon- 

 vocation week, each one where it chooses, and 

 that all come together in the summer, either 

 the week before or the week after the National 

 Educational Association, for a grand associa- 

 tion meeting, which shall be scientific, tech- 



nical and social, and where all papers will be 

 delivered either before the general association 

 or before the departments of the same. By 

 such an arrangement every section would be 

 a success, and there would be no serious con- 

 flict of interests, and the delightful social 

 features of the association would be perhaps 

 a prominent feature at the summer m.eeting. 



In my judgment persons who claim mem- 

 bership in the American Association by virtue 

 of membership in an affiliated society ought 

 to pay something into the treasury of the 

 association, or the affiliated society should pay 

 for them. The present arrangement seems to 

 me unfair and unjust. 



At the present time the great body of people 

 who would naturally be most interested in 

 Section D have their special societies. Civil 

 engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical en- 

 gineers, architects and (including them all) 

 the Society for the Promotion of Engineering 

 Education; all these would naturally be more 

 or less interested in the work of Section D. 

 None of these societies are affiliated. They 

 meet independently when they will, but they 

 do not desire to conflict in any way with 

 the American Association. In fact it may 

 truthfully be said that the American Asso- 

 ciation looks at the matters which interest all 

 engineers and teachers of engineering from a 

 somewhat different point of view from that of 

 the societies I have named, and consequently 

 it has a distinct function and sphere of its 

 own. Section D affords an opportunity for 

 the members of all these societies to get to- 

 gether on a common platform. 



C. M. Woodward. 



PROFESSOR METCALf'S EVOLUTION CATECHISM. 



To THE Editor of Science: In Science of 

 January 8, 1904, Professor Metcalf formulates 

 (p. 75) a series of crucial evolutionary ques- 

 tions. It is undoubtedly true that ' much 

 further observation ' will be necessary to de- 

 cide them, to the satisfaction of everybody, 

 but it is not less evident that we have already 

 a vastly larger body of evolutionary facts than 

 we have adequately interpreted. In the be- 

 lief that the problem is at present one of inter- 

 pretation quite as much as of observation, I 



